PANKOV’S FINAL BOW AT LES GRANDS BALLETS
With a triple bill of works by master choreographers Jiri Kylian and Stephan Thoss, Gradimir Pankov ends his 17-year tenure as artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.
Only the company’s founder, Ludmilla Chiriaeff, steered the
ship for as long. Pankov’s final show is something of a summary of his vision for the company over the years.
Pankov often called on eminent choreographer friends like Kylian, Ohad Naharin and Mats Ek to lend their works or to create new ones for the benefit of Les Grands. For his last show, Pankov called on Kylian, with whom he once worked at Nederlands Dans Theater. Indeed, the final show has two Kylian works — Evening Songs (1987) and Falling Angels (1989).
Pankov was actually planning on something else until he found himself in a bind. He had wanted to do a new creation for the company’s penultimate show in March, but the company suddenly received confirmation of a major gig in Paris the same month. There was not enough time to do both Paris and a new creation, so Pankov chose to revive Minus One, a work that Naharin put together for the company in 2002.
“We did eight performances (of Minus One) in Paris including two additional shows because it was sold out,” said Pankov, much pleased during an interview in his small office at Les Grands studios on St Denis St., which will be vacated in June when the company moves to its impressive new digs in the Wilder Building opposite Place des Arts.
An unlikely jumble of quirkiness, ritual, confession and self-mockery, Minus One put Montreal audiences on call early in Pankov’s tenure that Les Grands was moving into new contemporary territory. Minus One has played with great success on worldwide tour, and its performances here in March proved that even after some 15 years, it still has the goods to rouse audiences.
Pankov had considered programming Minus One for his final bow in May, but having fit it into the March slot, he had to find an appropriate substitute.
“I asked Jiri for Evening Songs to Dvorak’s choral music. Both of us are sentimental about this piece, which was created for the opening of NDT’s theatre in The Hague in 1987. The choir stands singing a cappella in a diagonal on the side of the stage.”
The sparse decor has little more than a small rug and a hanging golden panel. The choreography has echoes of folk dancing from Kylian’s Czech heritage, emphasized by the female dancers briskly flicking their skirts.
“It’s simple, lyrical, naïve, very musical,” said Pankov, characterizing the plotless piece as something akin to young peasants happily gathering together at a well.
In 1988, one year after Evening Songs, Kylian created the monumental Kaguyahime, also in Les Grands’ repertory. It was typical of Kylian, noted Pankov, that he alternated small- and large-scale works.
Pankov plans to leave the stage curtain up as the chorus and dancers from Evening Songs take a few minutes to file offstage to be replaced by the four drummers who will accompany dancers in quite a different Kylian piece, Falling Angels.
Created in 1989, Falling Angels is one of Kylian’s so-called blackand-white ballets. Six of his short individual works became grouped under that title in 1991, following the creation of his famous duet, Petite Mort, which was last performed in Montreal in 2008 by Anik Bissonnette and Mario Radacovsky.
Falling Angels features eight female dancers in close-fitting black body suits dancing to Steve Reich’s Drumming. Like the music, the choreography grows out of simple distinct patterns into complex ones. The description sounds more like the approach of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, whose work, Rain, at Place des Arts this month, is just one of her many pieces accompanied by Reich’s music.
In the case of Kylian, who has often shown lyrical, playful streaks, a venture into abstract linear dance was rather different. Abstract or not, one interpretation of Falling Angels perceives it as a cautionary tale about dancers’ vain quest for perfection. Pankov saw it rather as a challenge that Kylian set for himself to cut choreography to its bare bones.
Two separate casts perform Falling Angels, a sign of Les Grands’ depth of female performers as Pankov bids farewell.
At least one female dancer today, Marie-Ève Lapointe, was there when Pankov first arrived, as was one male, Jeremy Raia. Other still-active company members from Pankov’s early days are Jean-Sébastien Couture, Hervé Courtain, Jéremy Galdeano and Marcin Kaczorowski.
To conclude the triple bill, Pankov chose Thoss’s Searching for Home, a masterwork that entered Les Grands’ repertory in 2011. Together with two other Thoss works — Dream Away and Death and the Maiden — this triumvirate represents a high point in the legacy that Pankov leaves behind.
“I wanted to bring Searching for Home back because we’re licensed to perform it until 2018, and I’m a pragmatic person,” said Pankov. “We did it once, so we can do it a second time. And I like the piece very much.”
Great waves of psychological drama ebb and flow in the piece, as they do in each of Thoss’s trio of works at Les Grands. Some might think this piece is too heavy for a final farewell, but Pankov has a fondness for grave Germanic creations. Perhaps it is appropriate that at the end he leaves his audience deep in thought.
Pankov himself has a pixie-like humour. He remains vigorous and energetic at 79, and as artistic director emeritus, he has the option to attend future company rehearsals, though he intends to respect the authority of his successor, Ivan Cavallari.
Pankov’s wife, Margret Kaufmann, retired from the company last year after serving as rehearsal mistress and a valued aide for many years.
“I did everything I wanted do — absolutely. Over 30 pieces,” said Pankov when asked about any regrets.
It remains for him only to inaugurate the new studios on June 5. He began the long process of finding a new home soon after he was first appointed. The irony is that he will open the downtown headquarters just as he is going out the door.
TWO TANGO EVENTS ON TAP
The Montreal tango festival Bailongo has come into its own since it was first organized in 2014 by Studio Tango dance school, and fans are flying in from as far as San Francisco.
This year, Bailongo presents six days of classes and lectures held during the day, while evenings feature dance nights known as milongas where the public can dance.
Three gala milongas will include performances either by the Radio Tango Orchestra (May 19) or guest dance couples Pablo Rodriguez and Corina Herrera from Argentina (May 20) and Maria Filali and Gianpiero Galdi from Italy (May 21).
Milongas open at 9:30 p.m., but tango is a late-night activity and the guest artists will perform close to midnight.
Bailongo is presented from May 17 to 22. The first gala milonga is at 7755 St-Laurent Blvd.; tickets cost $27. Other gala milongas are at 200 Sherbrooke St. W.; tickets cost $37. You can buy tickets at the door or at bailongomontreal.com/ reservation-1.
On May 17, tango fans have a dance/music event unrelated to Bailongo called Te Amo Tango featuring the well-known bandoneon player Raul Jaurena and his orchestra. Local tango dancers perform on stage. The show is at 8 p.m. at Théâtre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts. Tickets cost $45.99 to $87.73. Call 514-8422112; order at placedesarts.com.